White Terror (Spain)

White Terror (Spain)

The "White Terror" in Spain is one of the names given to the atrocities committed on the Nationalist side of the war during its course and after. [ Antony Beevor , "The Battle For Spain; The Spanish Civil War 1936-1939" (Weidenfeld and Nicholson, 2006), pp.89-94.] The terror included the repression of political opponents in areas under Nationalist occupation, mass executions in areas captured from the Republicans, bombing of civilian areas such as Guernica, Madrid and Barcelona by the Luftwaffe and Italian air force and the establishment of Franquist prisons in the aftermath of the Republicans' defeat.

In areas controlled by the Nationalists, government officials, Popular Front politicians, union leaders, teachers, intellectuals, suspected Freemasons, Basque, Catalan or Galician nationalists, military officers who had supported the Republicans or who wavered, and people suspected of voting for the Popular Front were targeted, usually brought before local committees and imprisoned or executed.

Concrete figures do not exist, as many Communists and Socialists fled Spain after losing the Civil War. Estimates range from 200,000 to four times this figure (800,000) people. They died either as a result of the war or as a result of Nationalist repression after the war. [ Antony Beevor , "The Battle For Spain; The Spanish Civil War 1936-1939" (Weidenfeld and Nicholson, 2006), p.94.]

Red and White terrors

Following the outbreak of full-scale civil war there was an explosion of atrocities in both the Nationalist and Republican zones. Stanley Payne notes, "during the first months of the fighting most of the deaths did not come from combat on the battlefield but from political executions in the rear--the White and the Red Terror. The bloodiest days of the red terror were at the beginning of the civil war, when the government failed to control of much of its forces in the aftermath of the generals' rising, and large areas of the country fell under the control of local loyalists and militias. [ Antony Beevor , "The Battle For Spain; The Spanish Civil War 1936-1939" (Weidenfeld and Nicholson, 2006), pp.83-86.] Describing specifically the Red terror, Payne reports that this "began with the murder of some of the rebels as they attempted to surrender after their revolt had failed in several of the key cities. From there it broadened out to wholesale arrests, and sometimes wholesale executions, of landowners and industrialists, people associated with right-wing groups or the Catholic Church." [ [http://libro.uca.edu/payne2/payne26.htm Payne] p. 649]

References

ee also

*Spanish Civil War
*Spain under Franco
*Red Terror


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Поможем сделать НИР

Look at other dictionaries:

  • White Terror — In general, the term White Terror refers to acts of violence carried out by reactionary (usually monarchist or conservative) groups as part of a counter revolution. In particular, during the 20th century, in several countries the term White… …   Wikipedia

  • Francoist Spain — Estado Español Spanish State ← …   Wikipedia

  • Red Terror — The Red Terror in Soviet Russia was the campaign of mass arrests and executions conducted by the Bolshevik government. In Soviet historiography, the Red Terror is described as officially announced on September 2, 1918 by Yakov Sverdlov and ended… …   Wikipedia

  • Red Terror (disambiguation) — The term Red Terror was originally used to describe the last six weeks of the Reign of Terror of the French Revolution, ending on July 28, 1794 (execution of Robespierre), to distinguish it from the subsequent period of the White Terror . The… …   Wikipedia

  • War on Terror — This article is about the international military campaign. For the board game, see War on Terror (game). War on Terror …   Wikipedia

  • USS Terror (BM-4) — USS Terror (Monitor No. 4) the totally rebuilt version of the earlier monitor USS Agamenticus , which had shared the Terror s name was an iron hulled, twin screw, double turreted monitor, laid down in 1874 at Philadelphia, Pa., by William Cramp… …   Wikipedia

  • Snow White — This article is about the traditional fairy tale. For the Disney character, see Snow White (Disney). For other uses, see Snow White (disambiguation). Snow White Snow White in her coffin, Theodor Hosemann, 1852 Folk tale …   Wikipedia

  • Anti-Terror-Einheit — Abseil Vorführung des deutschen KSK auf der ILA 2000 Eine Spezialeinheit stellt eine geschlossene Einheit eines militärischen, polizeilichen oder nachrichtendienstlichen Verbandes dar, die in der Lage ist, aufgrund besonderer Ausbildung und spezi …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Anti-communist mass killings — refer to the political mass murder of communists, alleged communists, other leftists, or their supporters by right wing, reactionary regimes.[citation needed] Contents 1 Argentina 1.1 Dirty …   Wikipedia

  • Spanish Civil War — Spanish Civil War …   Wikipedia

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”